I've been playing some more with my Phoenix PTSM 2.5mm pluggable connector with spring clamp plug. It's quite affordable & really cute, but I won't be using it in production; it doesn't seem rugged enough for our typical use (IIRC, it's more oriented towards solid wire, and we typically use 22 AWG stranded, and I was able to pull 22 AWG wire loose). The IDC plugs might work better.

English is closely related to German and Dutch with a lot of French (from the Norman conquest , to use a French based word) thrown in. Actually, the closest relative to English is the tiny language of Frisian spoken in the northern Netherlands and Germany.

Well I have to say in my opinion these screw terminal blocks are best (for most I/O applications for disparate connections) because you can get them as screw terminals on the PCB, screw terminal plugs that plug into a PCB, matching panel mount versions, they are high current, they are rugged (important for industrial users, electricians AND those not as skilled at precision work.

Add to that you can get them from Weidmueller, Phoenix, FCI a dozen or more similar name brand (reputable) companies as well as el-cheapo Chinese for the budget concious.

Add to that that they are available in about 10 different colours.

And no special tooling is required.

This makes them the ideal I/O connector for plug n pray apps.

Unless of course you don't need that flexibility and shy away from price (although the chines ones are cheap).

If you want to do hobby stuff and don't cludging the connections then 0.1" dual row strips aren't to bad but I like polarisation if I've got to wire up lots of different things so I use JST XH series because they're dirt cheap, polarised, come in right angle and vertical and 2-20 pins and the crimp tool is afordable although pliers and a soldering iron do work. There's even a version that is polarised to the PCB so you can't solder it in the wrong way. These are available from Chinese sources as well.

Then there's the times I need to make high pin count connections to a dense board where I use Molex 53047-xxxx and 53048-xxxx. Their only downside is you need skill to terminate the wires to the crimp terminals, but even here there's hope as pre-terminated leads are available.

I believe you should design things to I/O standards where they go to the outside world, and internally you should standardise company (or hobbiest) wide to as few connector types as possible, and apart from cost it's worth considering availability and lead times and important for the hobbiest MOQ.

English is a mixture of Germanic and French roots. England was mostly German-speaking until 1066, when the Normans took over and merged in French. One place you see this in names for animals used for food. For example, you have swine from the German Schwein, but its meat is pork from the French porc.

Addressing an up-stream comment: While they're not common, you do see the umlaut-like diaeresis symbol ¨ in some English-language publications. It's a standard way to start a new syllable in words like naïve, coördinates, reëvaluate, and reänalyze. The New Yorker magazine is famous for using diaereses, and it's part of its style.

Given how easy it is to write accents in a decent word processor, you might as well write things properly -- especially at a site such as this with an international readership. Personally, I find quoting French or German adds a certain je ne sais quoi, nicht wahr? Of course, chacun a son goût.

Whoa, started with terminal blocks and now it includes German lesson :-) BTW, English is not latin, in fact, it derives from German, right? Italian, Spanish, may be portuguese, french are romance languages...

The perforated DIN rail is interesting. We use an electric saw to cut ours; I've looked into dedicated DIN rail cutters, but they're not worth it right now.

Unfortunately, I don't get a commision from Phoenix; actually I'm sure the others (Wago, Weidmuller, etc) are good, too -- but Phoenix has worked well for me, and everytime I've looked, I've found no reason to change.

To get off topic, it's fascinating how concentrated most industries are. For example, in the US, the automotive industry is still centered in the mid-west. The hard drive industry is in US (Silicon Valley, Minneapolis, and Longmont, Colorado), Singapore, Mayalaisa (media), Thailand (heads), and China. In the US, the semiconductor industry is concentrated in Silicon Valley, Texas, and Arizona, with some smaller outposts.